Buying my first home, need advice

Faith - posted on 02/20/2010

Personally, I say wait!! This is not a sellers market anymore. If you arent sure if orders are coming up for a stateside to stateside or even worse mobil unit, you dont want to buy. I've lived in base housing forever...hubby 9 yrs in...and I couldnt wait to get a house. I got a great steal on my brand new home and love it to pieces. BUT we will be moving and my payments are a little higher than what the going rate for rent is out here. Unless you are positive that you want to own a home in your current state that you live and may eventually be able to return to...dont buy. Also if you can figure that IF you do have to move you can definetly afford to keep paying on the house or rent it for at LEAST your mortage payment, this would not be a good investment in your future. When we move we are going to be paying the price for wanting to buy in this wonderful buyers market...a foreclosed home. They all talk short sale and so on, but lets face it, nothing is really being sold at actually value. If you cant get your house for a steal price you will not make any money selling it. I would just say wait, as painful as it. I totally understand wanting to invest and own something of your own. Military life at times has its big sacrifices...sometimes this has to be one of them. This is all just my own personal experience and thoughts though.

Good luck with whatever you choose :)

Frances - posted on 02/20/2010

Hmmm great question...
we have bought a place every place we've been stationed. There are a few things you need to know. You can only have up to 2 VA loans, though you may have more personal home loans.

something to do before you fall in love with any house is see how much you are approved for as well get an idea of how much bah you will be receiving and how much you are willing to spend a month on the house.

Realize that it will not include your electric, trash ect....so you have to leave a buffer for that as well...a good thing to do is contact people or even rental properties and see on average how much electric and water and such is a month...a good realer will find out for you on the average.

You have to think about if you want to keep the house or if you want to sell it when you leave.

Based on that you figure out the location, schools ect. There is a ton of things but in all you will love owning rather than not.
It is also just how good you are with managing money and how responsible you are with the decisions. If you are going to live in one place more than 4 years you would be loosing money not to buy a home.

Always always get a home inspection and title insurance. save you allot of headaches and the home usually comes with a one year warranty that you can renew.

Shelby - posted on 02/20/2010

OHHHH I forgot to add. DO NOT...I repeat DO NOT go with the Home Inspector that the realtor recommends. Hire your own to avoid a conflict of interest. In all honesty, Its best to hire two, Yes its definitely more expensive however it will save you a ton of money in the long run. Because remember, everything that goes wrong in that house will come out of your pocket. And NEVER buy a house without getting a New Home Owners Warranty. They are good for a year, and cover the major things.

Shelby - posted on 02/20/2010

Personally, I would wait, What would happen if you receive orders in a couple years? I'm not sure how the Air Force works, but there is always a possibility in the military that you will be forced to move and two things could very well happen, You won't be able to sell the house and A) You will have to stay while your husband leaves, B) You won't be able to rent and possibly goes into foreclosure.

I'm just saying look at all possible things that could happen. My husband and I made a huge mistake. Now we are paying big time for it. Go to several first time home buyer seminars. Talk to several people. Do your research on the housing trends and the local economy trends. Make sure you do your homework on your suggested mortgage payment versus what you could get from a rental if you had to go that route. Don't forget to include in your rental payment your home owner insurance, and make sure that you could get enough off of your rent that it would cover that.

Look over the entire house that you intend to buy, Be absolutely sure that there would be no remodeling that would need to be done because that would be another payment that would need to be covered by rent, also if you were trying to sell in a short amount of time, you'd never get enough out of it to cover a second loan.

Just be very smart... Good Luck in whatever you decide to do.

For us personally, We have decided we won't buy again until he retires. Housing markets are up and down, and its not always possible to sell a house after 3 years, and as far as renting it out...Not always an option. So for us, We know for a fact that me staying in one place for him to move to his next duty station is absolutely not an option, We NEED to be together.